Christmas 2010- Part One

So, we left for Christmas vacation a little earlier than planned - well, about 5 hours earlier.  We were going to leave for my brother, Andrew's, house after Matt ran our Kids Alive program on Thursday afternoon.  I was going to have everything and everyone ready to go and we were going to pull out of our yard around 6 p.m. Thursday, December 16 and drive the 6 or so hours to New Hampshire.  But thanks to Matt's dad who offered to run the kids' program for him, we were able to leave at 1 p.m.  We were so happy to be leaving on vacation.  Those last few months were a very busy time for us, and we were SO ready to have some time off and away from everything.  I don't think people really realize all that a pastor does, especially when there is only one pastor at a small but growing country church!  Anyways, we will leave that alone for now.

So, we had a good and uneventful drive down to New Hampshire and had a fun day Friday getting all ready to fly out on Saturday, December 18, which also happens to be Matt's birthday (he turned the big 3-1!  I tease him now about how he is "in his thirties...").  Our kids were so excited to go on an airplane and Danielle and I were well stocked with toys, snacks, and videos.  We had a straight flight from Boston to Denver, which is very nice to not have any layovers.  But, it does make for a long flight (just under 5 hours), so we had to come up with stuff to entertain two 4-year olds and two 2-year olds.  But it all worked just fine, and the kids were great.  We got really good seats all near each other, and we all took turns being "on-duty" with the kids, and making bathroom runs.

It was funny how the kids reacted when we were landing.  If you have ever flown into Denver, you know that it is pretty much always a bumpy landing due to the winds coming off the plains and the mountains.  Anyways, we were landing and the kids were going, "Whoa!" and "Ooooo!" and all kinds of things like that.  At one point, we had a really big bump and Liam made a loud, "Whoa!" sound and Eldan yelled out something about the wing falling off.  Leila was laughing and Evie said she saw a whale on wing.  We just laughed and hoped that there was no one nervous about landing sitting near us. If there was, then our kids certainly did not help the situation! :-)  After we landed, we had to wait for our gate to open up, and kids still went on and on about the bumps and such.  It was really cute.

We then got off the plane and were soon greeted by hugs and kisses from Grammy and Papa, and Uncle Ross (Andrew, Amanda's husband) and Aunt Manda.  We then headed over to my brother, Jeremy's, house where he had a delicious meal ready for us.  We ate, bathed the kids and got them in their jammies, then headed to hour or so to my parents house.  We were exhausted, but so very happy to be in Colorado.

For us, it is a three hour time difference in Colorado, so that messed us up for a couple days.  Poor Libby had the hardest time with it.  She would be ready for bed at around 5 p.m., but then ready to wake up and play at 4:30 or 5 a.m.!  Mommy and Daddy were not too excited about that, but she eventually got on the right schedule.  The next morning only a few of us went to church as the kids and mommies were too tired to go.  But that night, Uncle Ross and Aunt Manda offered to stay home with the kids, so the rest of us went to church where my parents were in the choir and they were having their cantata that night.  On the way home, we all splurged on some yummy Sonic food, and then went home.  Monday we did a little shopping and just had fun together.

On Monday evening, Matt and I made supper for everyone.  Whenever we all get together like this, we assign one night to each family to make something for everyone, so my mom doesn't always have to be cooking or in the kitchen.  So Monday night was our night and we made one of our favorite meals, Sliders.  I got the recipe from the Pioneer Woman website, and we just love them.  I think they went over well.  We also made chocolate covered strawberries and pretzels.

Tuesday evening we all bundled up in the cars, went to Fazoli's for supper (yummy, yummy!  And it has great significance to the beginning of Matt's and my relationship!  If you missed that post, you can read about it here.), then headed to the Zoo.  I think I told you about that already, though.  It was cold but lots of fun.  The next few days were spent just hanging out and eating, cooking, and having fun together.

It was really a lot of fun seeing the cousins all play together.  There are fights and yelling that occur, but for the most part they all have fun.  The older boys (Liam, Eldan, Kole, Aidan) love to play the Wii, so they have fun with that.  The girls are all high energy, so they basically just run around screaming and laughing.  I love it that my kids have so many cousins the same age.  I just wish they could see them more often!

On Friday night we all went to church for a special Christmas Eve service.  It was very nice and a great way to spend your Christmas Eve.  My brother Kip's wife, Nicki, was not able to come to the service, however, because her kids were sick.  I mean throw up, diarrhea sick (sorry to be so blunt, but its true!).  And Kip was on his way to getting sick too.  Nicki had been a sick a couple days before (Tuesday, I think).  And that is where it all began.  I think we have now determined that it was the flu.  And by the time that the vacation was over, I believe 18 out of the 24 of us got it.  Let me tell you, it was TERRIBLE!  The worst part of it "only" lasts about 12 hours, but it does take a day or two to get over it.  My brother, Andrew, had it on Christmas day, then I got it on Sunday, then Danielle (who is 7 months pregnant - poor thing!), then Matt, Amanda, Liam, Jeremy's family, and so on.  It was terrible.  Each day we would wake up and find out who had it next.  I don't think I have been that sick in a long time.  But, thankfully we got through it.  But let me tell you, we did a lot of laundry and disinfecting throughout that week!

Anyways, Christmas day was actually done in spurts instead of all together like we usually do.  That was due to the sickness.  So we had three different present opening times throughout the day, but it was still fun.  We also had our "traditional" Christmas dinner.  Traditional to us, not the rest of the world.  A while back, our family decided that we were tired of turkeys and hams on Christmas, so we decided to change it.  We are a meat loving family, so now our traditional Christmas dinner is steaks on the grill, twice baked potatoes, strawberry jello, and a few other things.  And we love it.  We look forward to it!

So there is the first half of our vacation.  Tune in soon for the next installment of Christmas 2010!

Until next time...

p.s.  I did have my dr. appt. today, and have another one tomorrow morning.  I will update you an everything then.  I will just say that there are a few things going on, and I am probably going to be seeing some specialists and having a few more dr. appts in the next couple of weeks.  But I am still not majorly concerned.  Even so, I know that no matter what, my God is still in control and everything is happening according to His plan!